Health cost inflation in New Zealand

A large personal injury insurance organisation was originally created to help fund work place injuries. Since then it has expanded into a “no fault non-optional personal injury protection insurance” scheme. The scheme is available to all New Zealanders, and any visitors to New Zealand. It is funded through the collection of several levies. The collection of these levies funds treatment costs, wage compensation, injury prevention programmes and more. As a person who works on the frontlines for this organisation, the author fields a lot of questions, in particular questions surrounding surcharges, and costs customers have had to pay to their treatment providers. This leads the research to the research question, “Are customers of this organisation having a financial burden placed on them when receiving treatment?” The researcher decided to look into three specific services and the contribution they receive from this organisation and charge to their customers, compared to the prices they charge for private consultations. This research was done only in the Waikato, and across three service types. It could be replicated with more services, and across other cities or countries. The research currently indicates that GPs seem to be charging this organisation’s customers a fair amount compared to private visits, whereas physiotherapists and radiologists are not